Capt. James Sutherland

Kingston’s James Thomas Sutherland was a hockey pioneer and life-long promoter of the game he loved as a player, coach, manager, referee and administrator.

Almost from the moment young James’ days as a player ended when he was seventeen years old, he organized and coached the Frontenac Hockey Club that won the Ontario junior championship in 1910 and 1911.

He served as president of the Ontario Hockey Association and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. On his return from service overseas during from service overseas during the First World War, he was instrumental in having the OHA Memorial Cup inaugurated in memory of the war dead.

Captain Sutherland’s peers in the game often refer to him as ‘The Father of Hockey’ and ‘The Grandmaster of Hockey’. He wrote numerous articles on Kingston’s hockey history as well as the CAHA’s Origin of Hockey in Canada’s report in 1942. He played a key role in the establishment of the Internationl Hockey Hall of Fame in Kingston, in 1943.

Three years after his death on September 16, 1966, Captain Sutherland was inducted as a builder into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.